


i know you like it sweet

by tamagotchitadashi



Series: birthday [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Baking, Birthday, Boys Kissing, M/M, failures, random metaphorical shit that doesnt even have a relevance to the plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 02:39:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8186138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tamagotchitadashi/pseuds/tamagotchitadashi
Summary: it's tsukishima's birthday and yamaguchi wants to confess, so he enlists the help of his friends (and food network) to help him on his quest.





	

**Author's Note:**

> aaaH! i apologize for how late this is being published, but i did start it the week before, i'm just a very slow writer, it seems. i hope you enjoy!

The story of how Yamaguchi Tadashi ended up covered in flour and calling up half his friends with a little shard left of desperate hope that they had any idea how to bake anything at all is a rather disastrous one, indeed.

Flashback to yesterday morning, when he'd rolled out of bed ten minutes late to meet Tsukki and walk to school (it should hardly be called late anymore - over time, the two had accepted Tadashi's tragic love of the phrase "five more minutes" into their daily lives), and realized that oh my gosh, it was Tsukki's birthday the day after next.

It wasn't like he'd completely forgotten. He'd gotten a card (a child's one, with a dinosaur on the front and a badge pinned to it, but hey, nothing but the best for his best friend) and he'd bought a mixtape kind of thing at a flea market a couple of weeks back, with tracks and tracks of that quirky and rather obscure music that his friend would probably listen to, and yet that didn't feel like he'd done enough.

And so Tadashi was even later and spent half the walk to school with a slightly furrowed brow and a expression on his face that just told Tsukki that his best friend was away with the fairies, as he mulled over thousands of possible ideas that would help him make his best friend (and, as cringe-worthy as the word sounds, long-time crush)'s birthday special.

Of course, Tsukki didn't know about his freckled friend's questionable inner monologue or that Tadashi was trying to plan a birthday idea for him, so he was just wondering why there was no excitable (and mainly one-sided) chatter this morning.

"You're worrying again, Yamaguchi," Tsukishima says airily, making the other stiffen a little at the mention of his name.

"W-What? Oh! Sorry, Tsukki! I'm not worrying, though," Tadashi flashes his friend a toothy smile, but that doesn't hide the soft tremble of his lips. He was so worrying.

Tsukishima just raises his eyebrows and passes his companion a earphone.

 

\---------------------------------------

 

Tadashi later decides that he's going to make a cake.

Strawberry shortcake, obviously, since that's always been Tsukki's "favourite ever".

In hindsight, he doesn't know why even he came up with this plan, let alone deem it plausible. Last time Tadashi had been in a kitchen and actually used something that wasn't the fridge was when Suga - Sweet, valient Suga - had attempted to teach him to cook. 

"It's soup," Suga had told him, "The key is to start easy, you see."

When Tadashi had looked skeptical (eyeing the oven with a worrying amount of caution), the grey-haired male had smiled that sunny smile of his and added a "Don't worry, Yamaguchi. Not even you could mess this up." 

(He hadn't realized that he had probably just been roasted like a beef on Sunday, because Suga had a way of saying cruel things kindly, with the aforementioned sunshine smile on his face, that made you feel like you were being blessed instead of insulted.)

He had ended up burning the leeks, while somehow the potato was still raw, and had completely and utterly ruined a perfectly good saucepan.

And the worst thing was that Nishinoya got it all on Snapchat.

But, yeah. Back to Tadashi attempting to bake a cake. Right.

So his search history is now filled with "easy strawberry shortcake recipe" and such of the like, but everything he's seen so far seems way too hard and he knows he can't bake, but he's getting tired of all of this browsing because he actually wants to do something and be productive for once, if it means that his chance of completing his life's main objective - Mission Win Tsukki's Heart (trademark symbol) - may increase just a little.

Maybe that's a little too hopeful, but he can't bring himself to be discouraged. 

His mum's out somewhere with the ladies from her work, so he has the kitchen to himself. He puts his laptop down on the counter (which probably isn't a good idea), displaying the web page with what he had previously deemed the one that seemed like the easiest recipe on it, along with the thousand of other tabs that he had never ever been bothered in the slightest to close down.

Then, he starts to sort through cupboards, hoping that his mother had had enough motivation to buy at least some of what he needed when attempting her rare escapades in the unknown region of cookery.

He stumbles through easy-to-read instructions (he likes the measuring bit - it's a bit messy, but Tadashi did always love maths and measurements and all that.) and is more than happy to see the work he'd slaved over for the best part of an hour or so slide right into the oven.

But of course, nothing is that easy when you're as bad at cooking in general as Yamaguchi Tadashi, and he's done something wrong, because he's managed to burn the cake while some parts are still gooey and doughy and really damn under-cooked.

So he calls his friends for help.

Obviously he doesn't call Tsukishima, but thankfully he does have other friends, even though so far they all seem as clueless as he is in the culinary arts.

The first person had (rather loudly) told him to "Just propose to him, what do you need a cake for?" by Hinata. He had originally rang Kageyama, in a fleeting moment of panic - like the genius setter would know anything about baking a cake - but the excitable ball of sunshine had stolen the phone and started to yell at Tadashi for not having gotten a ring yet.

So he'd thanked them both and hung up, moving onto the next contact.

Which had been just as bad or possibly even worse.

Why would anyone assume that Oikawa Tooru knew how to cook? After a moment of stunned silence, Tadashi had gotten a merry laugh and a "Tada-chan, you little darling, I love you and all for thinking so highly of me, but whenever Iwa-chan or my mum or something aren't cooking for me I literally live off nothing but instant coffee, Doritos, and pot noodle. I can give you his number, though, if you want?" in reply. 

Tadashi had giggled along with his friend for a moment before thanking him and saying goodbye, because honestly he did not have half the courage to be going around and ringing up people like the actual five-star chef (well, not really, but he might as well have been) Iwaizumi for help on a goddamn birthday cake anytime soon.

So onto Yachi.

"Hitoka?" He speaks in almost a sigh, a tired tone of voice that he has learnt to master. Unbeknownst to him, this exact tone was one of the things that had convinced - or practically forced, as the blond lamppost in question would later insist - Tsukishima Kei to fall in love with him.

"Yes, Tadashi?" Yachi answers. Unlike his Tsukki, Yachi just finds this hushed, dull tone amusing.

"Do you know how to bake a cake?" From the other line, the small blonde girl laughs aloud at the abrupt and seemingly rather random question.

"I do, yes. This wouldn't have anything to do with a certain birthday coming up soon, would it? Forgive me, Tadashi, but if you plan to do what Akaashi-san did with the giant cake and the owl costume then it really would not have the same effect. Tsukishima most certainly doesn't have the same kinks as Bokuto-san."

"Jesus, no! Besides, that cake was made from papier mache. I just want to make a tiny little shortcake, please."

"Alright, I'm coming over. Should I call Suga?"

"Oh. I probably should've called him first."

"Yeah, like you'd sacrifice your pride!" Tadashi is fairly sure each and every one of his friends are the literal embodiment of everything that is sass, and also ready to tease him at a moment's notice. Sometimes he thinks that he really needs to find better ones, but then there were times like this, when Yachi was saving his ass.

"Hitoka!" He whines, playfully, but she just laughs her little, jingly laugh and bids him farewell, telling him that she'll be there shortly.

 

\--------------------------------------- 

 

True to her word, Yachi turns up quite quickly, thank the lord, standing at his front door with their actual second mother Sugawara (who was carrying a bag, presumably filled with cookery supplies) by her side. Immediately Tadashi thanks them profusely and invites them in, but for a moment he is stunned by the amounts of literal angel that are in his house - both Yachi and Suga's existences in general blessed him.

"I'm told that you're suffering from baking troubles at the moment, Yamaguchi," Suga smiles, hiding an angelic laugh behind a hand that he had brought up to his face. "Have you got all the ingredients?"

Tadashi, once again, was blessed.

"Yeah, I think so? Did Yachi fill you in?" He asked, ushering them towards his bombshell of a kitchen as he wiped flour-coated palms on his jeans (in hindsight, he should've worn at least something in lieu of an apron).

His laptop still has the recipe tagged somewhere, but at the moment his laptop was displaying an English comic - Check, Please! - that he had started reading earlier on. He wasn't fluent or anything like that with English, but Google Translate helped when it could.

(He was a little embarrassed, though, when he saw Suga glancing at the computer screen with interest, because it was kind of low-key gay as hell.)

"Do you have an apron or anything?" Sugawara asks, his voice a calm sort of sound, like he spoke with a permanent hum.

"No, sorry," Tadashi admits a little bashfully, tilting his head downwards a little in shame. Both his tiny blonde bestie and the silver-haired angel laugh at that, but Suga - bless him - brings out three thin, patterned aprons and hands one each to Tadashi and Yachi, before tying his own little pinny around his waist and neck.

(Hitoka's apron was huge on her, and both of the boys found it nothing less than the most utterly adorable thing that they'd ever seen. They had said as much and she had pouted, which had been a completely counter productive move on her part, as it just made her look even cuter, if that was even possible.)

After Yachi had yelled at him to shut down at least ten of his open tabs, Suga had cleared most of the kitchen's horrendous mess away and Tadashi had rolled up his overly long sleeves and rediscovered the recipe, they set to work in a much more neat, strategic and organised manner than how the freckled boy has started off, which he had decided was definitely a key factor to his (probably inevitable anyway) failure.

The whole bake took about an hour, but it flew by, and Tadashi actually enjoyed it. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but he felt like maybe - just maybe - he could handle the soup again, with a little supervision.

"So when's Tsukishima-kun coming over?" Suga asked as they cleaned up (Yachi was just sorting through his tabs again.) and packed the stuff that the pretty third year had brought over back into his bag.

Tadashi glanced at the big clock on the wall. "About an hour or so. He's sleeping over, though." (Tadashi's mother barely came home and Tsukki didn't want to spend the whole day with Akiteru.)

"Is this why you needed the cake? To finally declare your love to him?" Sugawara asked, his tone slightly teasing but there was some degree of actual curiosity behind his cheeky, ever-present smile this time.

"How does everyone know?" Tadashi wailed, pouting slightly as he ran a slightly less powdered hand through his messy ahoge.

"Yams, no offence, but you hardly know how to be subtle. I'm half expecting you to turn up to one of our study sessions with Tsukishima Tadashi written all over your books like a ten year old girl with all the names of the One Direction members," Yachi said, her voice mild and casual but her words could slice diamonds like they were kinetic sand.

"Fair enough," He said after a brief pause where he had been wondering about his savage friends so hard he may as well have been trying to reassess his life's entire purpose or something else that was actually deep and meaningful.

Both Yachi and Suga laughed then, which made him laugh, and then he knew that, hey, maybe this was his time. Maybe he should just take a chance and tell Tsukki about his feelings for him.

Maybe everything would go fine, who knows. Maybe everything would be a complete disaster; with rejection or Tsukishima being disgusted with him for even thinking a single scandalous thought.

But the first cake was a disaster, too. And sometimes all you need is the good people, the friends who have become more like family, the laughter over stupid things, so you can make everything sweet again.

That was a terrible analogy, but it made him smile.

 

\--------------------------------------- 

 

When Tsukishima turned up, Suga and Yachi were gone, and Tadashi was just back reading a comic on his laptop. As soon as the doorbell rang he had jumped up like a dog when its owner comes home, sprinting to the door with a huge, genuine smile on his face. He swung it open to see the tall blonde standing with his dinosaur carry bag (This boy was so cute, he swore that he would explode).

"Happy birthday, Tsukki!" Tadashi had squealed, throwing his arms around his best friend, who had gone all stiff (He was always shocked when it happened. Tadashi didn't know why he hadn't gotten used to hugs yet.) for the first couple seconds and then had awkwardly patted his friend on the back.

His friend jumped back, out of the hug, still with that big, goofy smile spread across his face. "D'you wanna see your presents?" He asked, elegant eyes blinking up at Tsukishima, looking weirdly so small, even though there was a height difference between them was eight or nine inches, but it was odd times like these when the blond boy noticed.

"Lead me to them," Tsukishima answered, a hint of a smile on his lips as he held his arm out, which Tadashi grabbed the hand of and then proceeded to drag him mercilessly into the kitchen, where the cake was completely finished, but had been put back in the oven for the maximum surprise factor (Suga had been sure to make sure that everything had been turned off before he left, though, so don't worry), and the little tape and his birthday card were on the counter (That Tadashi had cleaned again after they'd gone. He was admittedly really damn proud of himself.)

Once he'd let the birthday boy go, he grabbed the tape and the card and gave them to his friend, watching intently. As soon as Tsukki had busied himself with them, the brunette grabbed an oven mitt he had pulled out of the cupboards earlier (Jesus, he was started to sound like a TV chef) and opened up the oven (His friend was being carefully subtle about looking at the freckled boy's ass as he bent down), pulling out the pretty little cake and placing it - even though it was probably already cool - on the little cooling rack.

"And I made you a cake," Tadashi speaks up, making Tsukki look up from the card (His best friend had drawn lots of little pictures in there, bless him) and blink in surprise.

"But I thought you couldn't cook?"

Tadashi lets out a chuckle, suddenly bashful. "I had help, truthfully. Yachi and Suga-san came over."

"Still, thank you," Tsukishima says, somewhat awkwardly as he was never very good with showing positivity, whether it be gratitude or happiness or affection. Yet his usually sharp and indifferent golden eyes softened in affection (hopefully not noticeably) at the sight of Tadashi looking so soft and shy, the pink flush on the apples of his cheeks making his splattering of freckles look even more prominent.

"Do you want some?" Tadashi asks, perking up a little, as he fishes around in cupboard drawers, trying to find a knife that wasn't for butter.

The taller boy answers with a "Yes, obviously,", finding a chopping board because he knows how awfully absent-minded his best friend is, and staring with raised eyebrows at the sharp knife in the brunette's hand.

At the look he is being sent, the boy in question just laughs, brandishing said knife in alarmingly wild gestures as he spoke and completely brushing the concern off with a "Don't worry, Tsukki! I can't do much damage with a little kitchen knife!" Even though it is in no way shape or form little, and Tadashi has proven that he could probably trip over a pebble and start nothing short of World War III, so the blonde isn't sure how much his reassurance is worth in the reliability aspect.

"Just be careful. You're going to poke someone's eye out."

(Tadashi had smiled a little at that; he knew this was Tsukki-talk for showing that he was at least somewhat concerned about his friend's well-being.)

But he was aware enough of his surroundings to be able to chop off two slices of the shortcake and serve them onto small plates, handing one to his friend and keeping one for himself, as he wrapped up what was left of the cake in foil and put it into a cupboard for now, so the birthday boy could take it home the next day. The two of them pulled out the chairs from beside the island counter in the middle of the kitchen and sat down.

The slightly shorter boy waited for his best friend to take a bite first, smiling avidly when he did so and crossing his fingers behind his back in hope that it was at least edible.

"My compliments to the chef," Tsukishima spoke once he had swallowed the chunk he'd bitten off, which made Tadashi smile in triumph (he then scarfed his own slice, making Tsukishima raise his eyebrows in disapproval at his friend's lack of table manners).

Tadashi was about to comment on the crumbs that lingered in the corners of Tsukishima's lips, when he stopped for a second.

And then he got an idea.

A stupid, stupid idea, but an idea none the less.

Well, he hadn't just thought of it now. He'd had thousands of thoughts about how he was going to confess to his best friend, and he'd planned out scenarios similar to this before... (Was this obsession? He reckoned that he'd probably crossed hundreds of lines just thinking about this sort of stuff.)

"Hey, Tsukki?" Tadashi asked, trying his very best not to sound all nervous and squeaky like he usually would. Oh my gosh, he was going to get rejected so badly, Tsukishima didn't even care about confessions from pretty girls, why would he care about one from someone as pathetic as him?

No.

He wasn't going to back out.

He took a deep breath and almost choked on air.

"Hm?"

"Y-You got a, um, bit of... Oh, fuck it," And Tadashi leaned towards his friend and gifted the blonde with possibly the worst kiss in the history of anything; sloppy lips against the corner of his friend's mouth, before pulling away lightning fast with wide eyes and an expression that practically yelled "holy shit holy shit holy shit", hiding his face with sweater sleeve-covered hands.

"Tadashi."

"Nooooo..." 

"Tadashi, look at me."

Haltingly, cold, long-fingered hands were wrapped around his sweater paws, and had gently pushed them down, away from his face.

Tsukishima's face was a little red, yet his amber eyes were staring right into the other boy's soft brown ones. 

He was fire and Tadashi was a forest and one day they'd be nothing but ashes and a bad smell but goddamn, for now the concept of together felt warm and inviting. "Together" was stunning, a twisted beauty that made pain feel like a warm bath after a stressful day.

And they kissed.

A real one, this time, though neither of them was sure who had initiated it. It was the sweet collision of warm lips and bated breath and sensations that tasted very slightly of a certain strawberry delicacy that started the forest fire.

"Happy birthday, Tsukki," Tadashi whispered, once they had pulled apart.

**Author's Note:**

> so birthday oneshots have sort of become my thing now, huh.  
> i hope you enjoyed even though i kind of feel like this was bad, but i didn't want to change it again so here's what we end up with. however, please leave kudos if you did enjoy!  
> love y'all, peace <3


End file.
